GALWAY FOOD FESTIVAL

The Galway Food Festival takes place the Easter weekend. They have a great blog here featuring some of my favourite spots like Kai and Griffin's Bakery. Worth a look!

SAINT PATRICK'S DAY BUNS

The finished buns

Juno and Finn decorating

Ahead of St Patrick's Day tomorrow (Happy Paddy's Day!) we made some lovely buns. This recipe is adapted from one of Nigella's.

Ingredients

125g caster sugar
125g self-raising flour
125g marg, melted a little (softened)
½ tsp vanilla essence (I used one vial of my Lidl Belbake Butter & Vanilla flavouring)

2 eggs, beaten

1 tblsp cow's or soya milk

Topping

1 large bar dark choc, melted

2 tsps of icing sugar, to thicken

green and orange jelly beans

Method

Preheat oven to 200˚C
Line a 12-space bun tin (my mix made 16 buns)
Throw all the ingredients into a bowl, except the milk; beat well with a wooden spoon
Add the milk slowly and beat in gently
Plop the (quite runny) mixture into the bun cases using two spoons
Bake for 18 minutes or so, until golden on top
Cool on a wire rack
Break the choc into squares, put in a large bowl over a small pot of hot water
When the choc melts, add 2 teasponns of icing sugar and mix through
Splodge onto the buns with a spatula, stick on the jelly beans and, voilá, Irish buns!

BELBAKE FLAVOURINGS - LIDL

Look what I got in Lidl today for €1.99! These gorgeous Belbake flavourings. They are in little vials! The cuteness. They are mostly veg oil with natural flavourings: lemon, rum, almond, orange and butter & vanilla. And they are suitable for vegetarians and vegans. I can't wait to crack open a vial and make something. My 9 year old has already requested Butter & Vanilla Buns for Paddy's Day so that may well be what I make.

GALWAY FOR VEGGIES - CAKE!

My husband and I love food. As veggies it's not always easy to eat out. But Galway city is good. Fantastic veggie food can be found at Da Tang Noodle House; at Ard Bia at Nimmo's; and at Tamarind by the Spanish Arch. These are firm favourites with us.

New places we love for food are Kai on Sea Road, where we had great curry recently, and the ever so cutesie tearoom Cupán Tae on Quay Lane. Think kitschy china, quirky teapots, net curtains and proper cake plates. We had scones, carrot cake and a divine lemon drizzle cake there lately. Droooool. And the staff are friendly! It's our new dessert place of choice but they also do salads and sambos, including a Veggie Deluxe. I look forward to our next trip into the city to sample more of what Cupán Tae has to offer. There are only 40 miles between me and their lemon drizzle cake :)